Setting

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a international public health emergency on the 30th January 2020, around the same time Australia recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Australia’s largest COVID-19 outbreak was in Melbourne, Victoria, with 72% (20,345 on 1st December 2020) [10] of the nation’s cases recorded in Victoria and 67% (n = 18,965 on 1st December 2020) [11] in metropolitan Melbourne. The new daily cases in Victoria began to rise in late June 2020 and peaked on 5th August 2020 with 725 new cases reported in a 24 h period [12].

Northern Health is the key provider of public health care in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Residents in the Northern Health catchment are culturally and linguistically diverse, born in over 170 countries, speaking over 100 different languages and following 75 religions or beliefs [13]. Northern Health’s catchment accounts for approximately 10% of Victoria’s population, however at the peak of the pandemic, one third of Victoria’s COVID-19 cases resided in the catchment.